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A service orientated architecture and wireless sensor network approach applied to the measurement and visualisation of a micro injection moulding process. Design, development and testing of an ESB based micro injection moulding platform using Google Gadgets and business processes for the integration of disparate hardware systems on the factory shop floor

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Factory shop floors of the future will see a significant increase in interconnected devices for monitoring and control. However, if a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) is implemented on all such devices then this will result in a large number of permutations of services and composite services. These services combined with other business level components can pose a huge challenge to manage as it is often difficult to keep an overview of all the devices, equipment and services. This thesis proposes an SOA based novel assimilation architecture for integrating disparate industrial hardware based processes and business processes of an enterprise in particular the plastics machinery environment. The key benefits of the proposed architecture are the reduction of complexity when integrating disparate hardware platforms; managing the associated services as well as allowing the Micro Injection Moulding (µIM) process to be monitored on the web through service and data integration. An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) based middleware layer integrates the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based environmental and simulated machine process systems with frontend Google Gadgets (GGs) based web visualisation applications. A business process framework is proposed to manage and orchestrate the resulting services from the architecture.
Results from the analysis of the WSN kits in terms of their usability and reliability showed that the Jennic WSN was easy to setup and had a reliable communication link in the polymer industrial environment with the PER being below 0.5%. The prototype Jennic WSN based µIM process monitoring system had limitations when monitoring high-resolution machine data, therefore a novel hybrid integration architecture was proposed. The assimilation architecture was implemented on a distributed server based test bed. Results from test scenarios showed that the architecture was highly scalable and could potentially allow a large number of disparate sensor based hardware systems and services to be hosted, managed, visualised and linked to form a cohesive business process.

Heightened concerns for cleaner air and increasingly more stringent regulations on
sulphur content in transportation fuels will make desulphurization more and more
important. The sulphur problem is becoming more serious in general, particularly for
diesel fuels as the regulated sulphur content is getting an order of magnitude lower,
while the sulphur contents of crude oils are becoming higher. This thesis aimed to
develop a desulphurisation process (based on oxidation followed by extraction) with
high efficiency, selectivity and minimum energy consumption leading to minimum
environmental impact via laboratory batch experiments, mathematical modelling and
optimisation.
Deep desulphurization of model sulphur compounds (di-n-butyl sulphide, dimethyl
sulfoxide and dibenzothiophene) and heavy gas oils (HGO) derived from Libyan crude
oil were conducted. A series of batch experiments were carried out using a small reactor
operating at various temperatures (40 ¿ 100 0C) with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as
oxidant and formic acid (HCOOH) as catalyst. Kinetic models for the oxidation process
are then developed based on `total sulphur approach¿. Extraction of unoxidised and
oxidised gas oils was also investigated using methanol, dimethylformamide (DMF) and
N-methyl pyrolidone (NMP) as solvents. For each solvent, the `measures¿ such as: the
partition coefficient (KP), effectiveness factor (Kf) and extractor factor (Ef) are used to
select the best/effective solvent and to find the effective heavy gas oil/solvent ratios.
A CSTR model is then developed for the process for evaluating viability of the large
scale operation. It is noted that while the energy consumption and recovery issues could
be ignored for batch experiments these could not be ignored for large scale operation.
Large amount of heating is necessary even to carry out the reaction at 30-40 0C, the
recovery of which is very important for maximising the profitability of operation and
also to minimise environmental impact by reducing net CO2 release. Here the heat
integration of the oxidation process is considered to recover most of the external energy
input. However, this leads to putting a number of heat exchangers in the oxidation
process requiring capital investment. Optimisation problem is formulated using
gPROMS modelling tool to optimise some of the design and operating parameters (such
as reaction temperature, residence time and splitter ratio) of integrated process while
minimising an objective function which is a coupled function of capital and operating
costs involving design and operating parameters. Two cases are studied: where (i) HGO
and catalyst are fed as one feed stream and (ii) HGO and catalyst are treated as two feed
streams.
A liquid-liquid extraction model is then developed for the extraction of sulphur
compounds from the oxidised heavy gas oil. With the experimentally determined KP
multi stage liquid-liquid extraction process is modelled using gPROMS software and the
process is simulated for three different solvents at different oil/solvent ratios to select the best solvent, and to obtain the best heavy gas oil to solvent ratio and number of
extraction stages to reduce the sulphur content to less than 10 ppm.
Finally, an integrated oxidation and extraction steps of ODS process is developed based
on the batch experiments and modelling. The recovery of oxidant, catalyst and solvent
are considered and preliminary economic analysis for the integrated ODS process is
presented.

Introduction: Medication errors are a major cause of illness and hospitalization of
patients throughout the world. This study examines the situation regarding medication
errors in the Armed Forces Hospital, Kuwait since no literature exists of any such studies
for this country. Several types of potential errors were studied by physicians, nurses and
pharmacists. Their attitudes to the commission of errors and possible consequences were
surveyed using questionnaires. Additionally, patient medical records were reviewed for
possible errors arising from such actions such as the co-administration of interacting
drugs.
Methods: This study included direct observations of physicians during the prescribing
process, pharmacists while they dispensed medications and nurses as they distributed and
administered drugs to patients. Data were collected and compiled on Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet and analyses were performed using SPSS. Where applicable, results were
reported as counts and/ or percentages of error rates.
Nurses, pharmacists and physicians survey questionnaires: From the 200 staff sent
questionnaires a total of 149 respondents comprising nurses (52.3%), physicians (32.2%)
and pharmacists (16.1%) returned the questionnaires a total response rate of 74.5%. All
responses were analyzed and compared item-by-item to see if there were any significant
differences between the three groups for each questionnaire item.
All three groups were most in agreement about their perception of hospital
administration as making patient safety a top priority with regard to communicating with
staff and taking action when medication errors were reported (all means 3.0 and p >
0.05). Pharmacists were most assured of administration support when an error was
reported whereas nurses were least likely to see the administration as being supportive ( p
< 0.001), and were more afraid of the negative consequences associated with reporting of
medication errors (p = 0.026). Although nurses were generally less likely to perceive
themselves as being able to communicate freely regarding reporting of errors compared
to pharmacists there was no significant difference between the two groups. Both however
were significantly different from physicians (p< 0.001). Physicians had the most
favorable response to perceiving new technology as helping to create a safer environment
for patients and to the full utilization of such technologies within the institution in order
to help prevent medical errors.
Scenario response - Responses to two scenarios outlining possible consequences,
should a staff member commit a medication error, tended to be very similar among the
three groups and followed the same general trend in which the later the error was
discovered and the more grievous the patient harm, the more severe would be the
consequences to the staff member. Interestingly, physicians saw themselves as less
likely to suffer consequences and nurses saw themselves as more likely to suffer
consequences should they have committed a medication error. All three groups were
more likely to see themselves as facing dismissal from their job if the patient were to die.
RESULTS OF ALL THREE OBSERVATIONS:
Result of Nursing observations: For 1124 doses studied, 194 resulted in some form of
error. The error rate was 17.2% and the accuracy was 82.8%. The commonest errors in a
descending order were: wrong time, wrong drug, omission, wrong strength/ dose, wrong
route, wrong instruction and wrong technique. No wrong drug form was actually
administered in the observational period. These were the total number of errors observed
for the entire month period of the study.
IV
Result of Pharmacist observations: A total of 2472 doses were observed during the one
month period. Observations were done for 3 hours per day each day that the study was
carried out. The study showed that there were 118 errors detected which were in the
following categories respectively: 52 no instructions, 28 wrong drug/unordered, 21 wrong
strength/dose, ignored/omission 13, shortage of medication 3 and expired date 1.
Result of Prescribers in Chart review for drug-drug interactions: The analysis of the
drug-drug interactions showed that out of a total of 1000 prescriptions, 124 had drug-drug
interactions. None were found to fall into the highest severity rating i.e. 4
(contraindicated). Only twenty-one interactions were rated 3 (major), 87 interactions
were rated moderate and 15 interactions were rated minor according the modified
Micromedex scale.
Patient education: All health care such as physician, pharmacist, and nurses have a
responsibility to educate patient about their medication use and their health conditions to
protecting them from any error can occur by wrong using drugs.
Conclusion This study has contributed to the field of medication errors by providing
data for a Middle Eastern country for the very first time. The views and opinions of the
nurses, pharmacists and physicians should be considered to enhance the systems to
minimize any errors in the future.

Advances in micromoulding technology are leading to complex,net-shape products having sub-milligramme masses with micro-scale surface features in a range of polymer and nano-composite materials.For such small components subjected to the extreme stress,strain-rate and temperature gradients encountered in the micromoulding process,detailed process monitoring is desirable to highlight variations in moulding conditions and assist in creating a viable manufacturing process with acceptable quality products.This paper covers the implementation of a suite of sensors on a commercial micromoulding machine and detailed computer monitoring during processing of a polyacetal component over a range of processing conditions.The results determined that cavity pressure curve integral data provides the most sensitive factor for characterisation of a moulding process of a 0.34 mm~3(0.49 mg)product.The repeatability of the process is directly compared with that of a 15.6mm~3(22.2 mg)product and shown to beinferior.DSC measurements of the whole products indicated little variation in average crystallinity of the products manufactured over a mould temperature range of 30 to 130deg C.

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